Redeeming Scripture Archives - Page 55 of 59

It has been over eight years since I last added audio files to my podcast. Yikes! Oh well… it is up and running again now.

I will probably add one or two podcasts per month, so it won’t be an overload of information.

Click here to subscribe in iTunes.

I have been wanted to get it going again for several years now, but have never had the chance. So I decided that while we remember the death and resurrection of Jesus, it would be the perfect time to resurrect my podcast.

And what better way to do it than by posting an Easter-themed message?

This first podcast episode is called “The Six Denials of Peter.” In it, I act as if I am Peter and am telling a story about the day I denied Jesus. I show that Peter did not deny Jesus only three times, but six times.

The Six Denials of Peter

One of the things I will try to do on my podcast is not only post the audio, but also post a manuscript of what is said so that you can ask questions or make comments. I always get frustrated when I listen to podcasts and there is no way to ask the speaker for clarification or to share with him or her how much I appreciated what was said.

So whenever I make a podcast, I will also be linking to a post or page where you can leave questions and comments. For this first podcast episode, I will be leaving BOTH a blog post and a Blog page.

This blog post contains some of the Bible references you may need to check the information I provide in the podcast episode. I cover a lot of ground and do so in the form of a narrative, and so the information below will be helpful for you as you seek to follow along.

The full manuscript of what I say about the Six Denials of Peter can be found here, as well as a link to a book which first helped me see this about 10 years ago.

[Read more…]

Have I committed the Unforgivable Sin?

By Jeremy Myers

33 Comments

Most Christians have wondered at one time or another if they have committed the unforgivable sin.

I remember being terrified as a child that I had committed some unknown sin which would separate me eternally from God, and so several times a day, I would ask God to forgive me of all known and unknown sins, and would once again ask God to save me and give me eternal life. I was scared that I had committed a sin which was unforgivable.

What bad things had I possibly done as a youth? Nothing too serious. I fought with my siblings, stole candy from the supermarket, and disobeyed my parents.

But there were a few particular sins which terrified me most. They were terrible and I hesitate even to write them here, as I have never told anyone about them before. But to show you that I too have struggled with the unforgivable sin, let me share one of my more terrible sins.

My Most Terrible Sin

As a teenager, I remember kneeling at my bed late one night, and praying to Satan that he would come into my heart.

This is a terrible thing to pray for, but let me explain my rationale. I had been told as a child that one became a Christian by asking Jesus into their heart, which I had done. In fact, as I indicated above, I had done this numerous times.

But one day, someone told me that God was stronger than Satan, and once Jesus was in your heart, nothing could remove Him; not even Satan.

So I decided to test it.

I once prayed to Satan that he would enter my heart.

I also prayed that if he was successful, he would make me the antichrist.

I figured that if I was going to go down in flames, I might as well make it count.

I remember waiting for something to feel different, but nothing seemed to change, and so I decided that Jesus must have been successful in keeping Satan out of my heart.

Have I Committed the Unforgivable Sin?

Nevertheless, even though I did not feel Satan enter my heart, for many years afterwards I had an unshakable fear that maybe Satan had been successful, and since he was the great deceiver, I would not know that he ruled my heart until I actually became the antichrist. So I began to pray night and day that God would keep me from becoming the antichrist. One of my greatest fears at that time was that I would grow up to be God’s greatest enemy on earth.

You can imagine that among the theories on what the unpardonable sin is, one of the top contenders is asking Satan to kick Jesus out of your heart and take up residence there himself so that you can become the antichrist. If there is any unforgivable sin, this is it.

If anyone has committed the unforgivable sin, it is me.

If I had gone for counseling from a pastor who warns others about the unforgivable sin, I believe he would have told me I was doomed forever; that there was no forgiveness for me.

In fact, such a pastor would probably also say that since I committed the unpardonable sin, what I write in these posts about the unpardonable sin is not from God, but is the heresy of a reprobate heart darkened by Satan’s lies.

I hope that after you read these posts, you will feel differently.

I hope that you will come to see how much God loves you and forgives you. I have seen this for myself, and frankly, I cannot imagine how it would benefit Satan to teach others that God is loving and forgiving.

I hope that these posts will help you determine for yourself — in the light of Scripture and through the guidance of the Holy Spirit — that you also have not committed the unforgivable sin.

The content of these posts contain some of the things I have learned over the years about the unforgivable sin, and how I gained freedom and deliverance from my sins of the past. Like me, I trust that as you also will come to to an understanding of God’s infinite love, grace, and forgiveness.

Do you fear that you have committed the Unforgivable Sin?

Fear not! You are forgiven. You are loved.

Fill out the form below to receive several emails from me which explains how you can know that you are loved and forgiven by God.

(Note: If you are a member of RedeemingGod.com, login and then revisit this page to update your membership.)

The key to prayer is to ASK (Ask, Seek, Knock)

By Jeremy Myers

9 Comments

Jesus taught us to be answers to our own prayers when, in the Sermon on the Mount, He told His disciples, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened” (Matthew 7:7-8).

When reading Matthew 7:7-8, most people think that Jesus was saying the same thing three different times: pray, and your prayer will get answered. In other words they read “Ask, seek, knock” as “Pray, pray, and pray again.”

But there may be a better way of understanding the words of Jesus.

Jesus is not simply telling His disciples to pray, but is giving them instructions on how to see answers to their own prayers.

Ask

First, Jesus tells them to ask. This is the prayer part. It is taking our requests and needs to God, and presenting them before Him. It is not that He is unaware of our needs, for He knows what we need before we ask Him (Matthew 6:8).

Just as we talk over the issues of our day with our spouse or friends, so also God wants us to communicate with Him about the issues and needs which are heavy on our hearts and minds. So, we ask Him about these things. This is the first step to prayer.

Seek

But after we ask, we don’t simply keep asking. We must begin to seek. This is the second step. Seeking is when we look around for how God might answer our prayers. After we ask God for something, the next thing we must do is start looking around with eyes of faith for how God might be providing answers to the issues we discussed with Him.

Knock

Seeking answers to our prayers leads to the third step in getting our prayers answer: knocking. After we ask God to help us with our needs, and as we seek for possible ways that God might answer our requests, we must then step out in faith and knock on the doors that present themselves. When we ask, we ask with faith.

When we seek, we seek possible answers with eyes of faith. And when we knock, we step out and take risks with faith by pursuing opportunities that were brought to our attention during the seeking phase.

Sometimes the first door we knock on is the one that opens, but this is usually not the case. Sometimes we have to knock on ten, fifty, even hundreds of doors.

For this reason, the knocking phase is often the most difficult, but it is here that perseverance is vitally important if we are going to see answers to our prayers.

Want to see more answers to prayer?

Don’t just ask God for things. Step out and seek ways that He might answer them, and then knock on the doors of opportunity that are presented.

In this way, praying is more than just asking God for things and then sitting around, waiting for Him to respond.

Do you want to pray like never before?

Do you what to talk to God like you talk to a friend? Do you want to see more answers to prayer?

If you have these (and other) questions about prayer, let me send you some teaching and instruction about prayer to your email inbox. You will receive one or two per week, absolutely free. Fill out the form below to get started.

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How to Pray According to God’s Will

By Jeremy Myers

7 Comments

Once we understand that talking with God is like talking to a person who is with us always, and that Scripture (especially the Psalms) can be a helpful guide in learning what to pray and how to pray, all of mystery disappears from praying according the will of God.

Scriptures on Prayer

Several passages in Scripture have caused lots of problems over the years regarding prayer. Here are some of the more prominent:

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him! (Matthew 7:7-11)

If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. (John 15:7)

Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him. (1 John 5:14-15)

Some have developed entire ministries around this idea that if you want something, all you have to do is ask God for it, and ask with enough faith, He will give it to you whatever you ask.

What is often neglected in these ministries is that the emphasis in the context of these Scriptures is not on the kind of faith or the amount of faith, but on abiding with Christ and asking according to the will of God.

Abide with Christ

What does it mean to abide with Christ? It means to remain, to dwell, to stay with. Abiding with Christ, or remaining with Him, is a prominent theme in John 14-17, and the first letter of John, and in both contexts it seems that to abide with Christ simply means to always be aware of His presence. To be in constant communication with Him. To understand that He is always with you, and you are always with Him.

To abide with Christ means to talk with Him and go through life with Him as you would someone who is always by your side.

As we develop this constant awareness and the constant communication that Goes with it, and as we learn to pray the Scriptures, we will soon find that our prayer life changes, what we pray for changes, and how we pray changes.

We will soon be praying for things that are only found in Scripture, which of course are all according to the will of God, and those things which we pray for which are not found in Scripture, our prayers for them will simply be part of a long-running conversation with God where He challenges some of our motives and requests and helps us focus on what we really need from His perspective, and what would be best for His purposes and mission in the world.

Praying According to the Will of God

As we pray Scripture, and as we pray conversationally with God, we can know that He is informing and guiding and refining our prayer requests so that we are praying according to His will.

We pray according to the will of God as we gain awareness of the presence of God.

This is important because according to the passages above, when we pray according to His will, we know that He hears us, and we know that we have what we asked of Him. When we pray according to His will, we are guaranteed that our prayers get answered.

Do you want to pray like never before?

Do you what to talk to God like you talk to a friend? Do you want to see more answers to prayer?

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How to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17)

By Jeremy Myers

10 Comments

Many people wonder what Paul meant in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 when he wrote about praying without ceasing.

But when we come to recognize prayer as a running conversation with God, it helps make sense of what Paul meant in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 when he instructed his readers to “pray without ceasing.”

If prayer is a set time and place where we go into a particular room, get down on our knees, fold our hands, bow our heads, close our eyes, and say certain things to God, it is nearly impossible to follow Paul’s instruction. How could one possibly do this nonstop?

Formal Prayer Without Ceasing is Impossible

And yet some Christians try.

You will often find illustrations in sermons and books on prayer about how prayer is a spiritual discipline, and while the new believer may only pray for five minutes a day, the longer one is a Christian, the more time they should spend in prayer, so that the truly spiritual prayer warrior will pray for several hours a day.

Martin Luther once said that he tried to spend two hours every day in prayer, but if he was really busy, he would spend three.

This sort of mentality was found in the Desert Fathers who went out into the wilderness so they could devote more time to prayer. Today, people go on “prayer retreats” so they can spend the majority of that time in prayer.

Yet in all of these cases, nobody claims to be praying without ceasing. They must sleep. They must eat. They must run errands, and talk to other people.

As long as one has a formalized definition of prayer that requires a certain posture and a certain way of speaking, then praying without ceasing is impossible.

Do not misunderstand.

I am not against formalized times, places, and postures of prayer. I think Jesus might have had all of these. We do read that He often got up very early in the morning, and went out to a solitary place to pray (Mark 1:35).

But it would be wrong to think that these were the only times Jesus prayed. Jesus understood what it meant to pray without ceasing, and these early mornings of prayer were a small part of His overall prayer life.

Conversational Prayer without Ceasing is Achievable and Enjoyable

Praying without ceasing requires us to think about prayer as we have seen in the recorded prayers of Jesus, Paul, and the Psalms.

If prayer is an ongoing conversation we are having with God, and if God is with us always, then we can always be in conversation with Him.

Sure, you will not always be talking to each other, but as in any relationship, silence is part of a conversation too. Sometimes there is a lot to say, and sometimes it is enough to just be in each other’s presence. Frequently, it is nice to sit down for a long talk, and other times, you can casually discuss issues as you run errands, take a walk, eat meals, or watch television.

When we view prayer as a conversation with a God who is always present, it opens up a whole new realm of freedom in prayer.

You no longer have to feel guilty about not spending enough time in prayer; you can always tell someone you pray nonstop during your waking hours. You no longer have to begin and end each prayer with certain words, because in an ongoing conversation, there is no beginning and end. You no longer have to remember to pray about something.

If you learn of a need, just start talking about it with God right then and there. If you find yourself in a bad situation, you no longer have to think, “I should have prayed for protection this morning.” If you find yourself in a predicament, don’t beat yourself over the head with guilt. That’s just makes things worse. Instead, pray for protection. A word or two will do: “God! Help!”

In these ways and so many others, your prayer life can be transformed from a tired and boring religious duty that you try to fit in to your busy day, into a vibrant and inspiring ongoing conversation with a living and powerful God who is always by your side.

You say “Good morning” when you wake up, and “Good night” when you go to bed. You thank him for the taste of your coffee, and praise Him for the beauty of the frost on the grass. You discuss with him the problems you are facing with your daughter, and your worry about the meeting with your boss at work.

And when you sin (as you will every day), you don’t need to fear that God was scared off. No, He’s seen and heard it all before. So you laugh with God about your weakness and thank Him for the forgiveness He has already offered by His grace through Jesus Christ. And then you continue with your day.

This is how we pray without ceasing. It is an ongoing conversation with God. Incidentally, this is also how we learn to pray according to the will of God.

If you want to learn more about this sort of prayer, I highly recommend The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence.

Do you want to pray like never before?

Do you what to talk to God like you talk to a friend? Do you want to see more answers to prayer?

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Thanks for visiting this page ... but this page is for Discipleship Group members.

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The Resurrection of My Podcast

The Six Denials of Peter

Have I committed the Unforgivable Sin?

My Most Terrible Sin

Have I Committed the Unforgivable Sin?

Do you fear that you have committed the Unforgivable Sin?

The key to prayer is to ASK (Ask, Seek, Knock)

Ask

Seek

Knock

Do you want to pray like never before?

How to Pray According to God’s Will

Scriptures on Prayer

Abide with Christ

Praying According to the Will of God

Do you want to pray like never before?

How to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17)

Formal Prayer Without Ceasing is Impossible

Conversational Prayer without Ceasing is Achievable and Enjoyable

Do you want to pray like never before?

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